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Red Mite Raisers

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"Misery loves company"

Members: 7
Latest Activity: Sep 20

Started by steamyb. Last reply by rom mendoza Aug 4.

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Comment by steamyb on September 20, 2009 at 3:20pm: Sue- I can appreciate the “hands on approach” to dispatching a BSFL, but I am not there yet. I can’t stand to touch them by accident, much less on purpose. I applaud you getting the job done on those creepy maggots. Way to go!

Comment by Sue on September 20, 2009 at 11:18am: steamyb,
the BSFL..... I find them on the melon rinds, pick them up w. my fingers and pull them in half and throw them back in the bin.
That should teach them messing around in places they have to business to be, lol. Well, not in MY worm bin anyway.

I have also seen a BSF in my bin with mites all over him/her. But that fly wasn't dead yet.

Comment by steamyb on September 20, 2009 at 10:54am: Believe it or not, but my wife may have found something the mites are good at. When we find BSFLs in any of our worm containers, we cut them in half with the little tool we use to muck around the box with. The tool is a Pampered Chef cake icing spreader (small size with the blade off-set to the handle). Anyway, it works great for messing with worms and cuts BSFLs in half with just a flick of the wrist. So back to the mites, it seems the mites love to eat the guts out of the BSFLs. The mites will swarm all over the dead BSFLs and the next day all that is left of the BSFLs is the casing.

Comment by steamyb on September 5, 2009 at 5:48pm: Well Sue, even if they (the mites) are smarter, they are still in a box. We can stay one step ahead of them by keeping everything around the box dry. If the mites have access to limitless moisture, then all is lost and the world will be doomed. We will know that we have done our best, but alas, our best just wasn’t good enough.

Comment by Sue on September 5, 2009 at 1:34pm: The mites in my bin have become smarter. They do not attach themselves to the melon rinds anymore. Stay conveniently underneath it. They are too small for me to see but may be they are laying on their backs and muching on the melon that way. It is the 3rd day that the melon wedges are in the bin and I couldn't trap enough of them.

Comment by steamyb on August 28, 2009 at 8:14pm: No mites, but I did not add water. If I had, the stuff would probably be crawling with them.
This was an 18 gal. Rubbermaid tote with 2 or 3 lbs. of EFs for about 3 months or so.

Comment by Sue on August 28, 2009 at 7:07pm: steamyb, did you find mites in it or are they gone.
Compared to yours, mine was a meager 5lb appr. from my WF. It sat ca. 3 mths. as a lower tray. I didn't find any worms when I harvested and about 5 or 7 cocoons (duds?)

Comment by steamyb on August 28, 2009 at 6:52pm: Sue, I harvested a Rubbermaid tote in March. About 30 lbs. of VC went into the Incubator (a Rubbermaid tote that holds the VC until the worms hatch out). My wife and I “rescued about a hundred worms out of that tote over the next 2 months. Then the VC went into a plastic garbage bag and sat on my patio until 3 weeks ago (I forgot it was there). Anyway, when I put the VC into a drying pan, I pulled out 6 more worms. Now the VC is properly dried and beautifully crumbly and jet black.
To answer your question about when compost is “done”, as long as organisms are alive in the VC, it is never done. That is what makes VC such an asset to your plants. Chemical fertilizers cannot do for plants what VC does.

Comment by Sue on August 28, 2009 at 6:15pm: Sorry, let me re-phrase.
As best as we can, we try (at least I thought I did) to avoid condition in our bin that will be mite-haven/heaven(?) like i.e. too wet, too much food etc.
I think that sounds better.

I know the worms haven't complained so far, they (the worms) didn't come in my dreams to tell me about it or anything lol. So I think it is more for my own peace of mind that less mites is a better place for the worms.

I haven't thought about the mites dying. I know when the worms were dying because I saw less of them. But with the mites, I cannot remember seeing less of them. It seems to me it is always getting more and more, even in the finished VC I harvested a couple of weeks ago. Put it in a bag with cardboard on top of it. A week later when I was going to use it, the cardboard was full of mites, also the sides of the bag when I opened it. Does that mean the compost isn't fully done/finished?

Comment by steamyb on August 28, 2009 at 5:15pm: I agree with your observations Sue. The mites are members of an ecosystem that we feel we can control, but alas, that is a delusion. Our controls are extremely limited and nature prevails. The worm bins, totes, boxes and barrels we have are just a small part of a natural world that most of us never thought of before we cultured worms. It seems funny that now we think we can control it.